Senators met in Pacquiao house for Senate reorganization

At least 16 senators met in Senator Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao’s house in Makati City last Sunday night to plan the reorganization in the Senate that led to the removal of Liberal Party (LP) senators and allies from their key posts in the chamber.

Pacquiao himself disclosed this on Tuesday, a day after three LP senators—Franklin Drilon, Francis Pangilinan, and Benigno Paolo “Bam” Aquino IV, and Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros — were stripped of their posts.

“Napag-usapan, napag discussan na para marami tayong magawa na trabaho dito sa Senado e kelangan ma-identify na yung sa atin, sa atin. Yung hindi, hindi (We have talked about and discussed that for us to be able to accomplish a lot of work in the Senate, we need to identify our allies. Those who are not our allies are not our allies),” the neophyte senator told reporters.

Pacquiao said President Rodrigo Duterte had nothing to do with the reorganization. This was contrary to LP senators’ reported claim that the Palace had a hand in the majority’s decision to kick them out of their posts.

“Walang kinalaman dito ang Pangulo. Hndi tayo makakagawa ng trabaho dito sa Senado kung hindi natin gaganunin (The President has nothing to do with it. We won’t be able to accomplish our work in the Senate if there would be no reorganization),” Pacquiao said.

Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.